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The Spectator
Senior Theatre Projects
As the semester comes draws to a close, the senior theater majors, Romina Memoli, Nick Fessette, Chelsea D'Aprile, Jennifer Mitchell and Silvio Cuadra entertain and move us with pieces about hunger, love, heartbreak and everything in between.Romina Memoli:
We All Have the Same Story
feminism, want, love
This play, by Franca Rame and Dario Fo, was written and performed in 1978 in support of the Women's Movement in Italy and the reproductive rights cause. It is a one-woman show. I wanted to further explore the interaction between politics and theatre and different styles of performance... such as Commedia Dell'Arte, Storytelling and AgitProp.
It is a comedy! It explores and explains the inefficacy of abortion laws, and gendered discrimination. [This piece was challenging because it is] 35 minutes of non-stop movement, I talk, talk, talk. It is tiring, and I've had to rehearse a lot in order to do it all without dying... I end up sweating buckets!
Chelsea D'Aprile:
From Darkness Into Light
oppression, beauty, courage
From Darkness Into Light, by Chelsea D'Aprile, is an original adaptation of Letters of a Javanese Princess, a collection of letters written by Raden Adjeng Kartini, a young Javanese woman who fought for women's rights in the early twentieth century. I was very interested in adapting a written work, and after Craig Latrell introduced me to Kartini's letters, I knew immediately that adapting those letters into a play and sharing Kartini's remarkable story with an audience would be perfect.
I faced the challenge of portraying a Javanese woman; to achieve the Javanese form, I focused on adopting the movement of the Javanese, particularly through dance. I intertwined many dance pieces throughout her play, and also used Javanese gamelan music to further pull the audience into the world of her character. I hoped to create a beautiful play through which the audience would learn the story of Kartini, a feminist of her time who dared to create change in a land that refused to change.
Jennifer Mitchell:
Button Factory
fantasy, norms, fear
Button Factory is a thirty-minute absurbist play I wrote about defying social convention. The play exists in a fastasy world where people spend everyday of their lives pushing buttons. Although they don't know what pushing the button does, the workers are afraid to stop. One worker, J23, is the first to question her existence in the factory. She contemplates whether to stop pushing her button and leave the only home she's ever known. The play ends with J23 deciding what course to take.
Nick Fessette:
The Hunger Artist
desire, sacrifice, creation
In a truly "naked" performance, I plunge headfirst into the soul of the hunger artist and ecstatically emerge drenched in theatrical placenta. Using song, dance and circus tricks, I explore starvation, the human body and what it means to be a performing animal. I authored The Hunger Artist based on Kafka's short story and excerpts from Bertolt Brecht, Georg Büchner and Sarah Kane. This is a character about which I feel very deeply. I have sacrificed a lot for him: I have been a vegetarian since the beginning of the year and I'm fasting as much as I can. I've lost over 20 lbs. What first struck me was not the horror or humor of Kafka's story, but the forces that drive the hunger artist's actions; he embodies the profound spiritual dissatisfaction and obsessions which plague us all.
Hillary Fixelle:
She Talks to Beethoven
culture, struggle, dialogue
The play deals with protagonists Suzanne Alexander's and Ludwig Van Beethoven's struggles to cope with loss and to find their places in their respective communities. Set in Ghana in 1961, shortly after the country achieved independence, She Talks to Beethoven describes Suzanne's attempts to write a play about Beethoven, all the while awaiting information about her husband's mysterious disappearance. She is visited by Beethoven, and they bond over their similar struggles. Like Suzanne, Beethoven is haunted by the possibility of losing a loved one—in this case, he deals with rejection from his nephew, Karl.
I was particularly drawn to the way that She Talks To Beethoven disregards traditional plot structure; it is the poetic flow of the dialogue--not the character's actions--that drives the piece. I also liked how the play defies the time and space continuum.
I sought to communicate Kennedy's belief in the connectedness between African and European identities. I also wanted to highlight the idea that art is a universal medium for personal expression and that it can comfort people during difficult times.
Silvio Cuadra:
Drinking in America
addiction, escape, absurdity
This play is a series of twelve monologues which portray unrelated characters, all of whom are substance abusers. I was drawn to Bogosian and particularly Drinking in America because of Bogosian's raw comedic style and subject matter. Bogosian creates these over the top characters that one can't help but laugh at, while at the same time portraying characteristics of people we all know or have met in our own lives. The three pieces I chose to perform—Wired, No Problems and Our Gang—span the wide range of characters in Drinking in America and provide an interesting balance to the performance. In portraying these three very different characters that have very similar habits, I hope to illustrate the use of drugs and alcohol as an escape from one's life and problems while still taking advantage of Bogosian's absurd and hilarious writing.